The Cathedral of Oena was a massive structure that towered above everything else in the eastern section of the capital city. It served as a landmark to orient oneself should they ever get lost, making it one of the popular sites within the city. Each day, hundreds of local worshipers and traveling pilgrims passed through the solid doors made of a wood similar to that of purpleheart, giving it a distinct purplish hue. They came to pray at shrines built into recesses between ornate columns of marble, admire religious artworks from famous artists of old, see artifacts that they may have only heard stories of, and of course to celebrate Oena.

Tess had been religious once upon a time, but had fallen out of practice during her long tenure within the Tutorial. Now if pressed, she might say that she believed in higher powers’ existence but not necessarily their effect on others. This was perhaps a strange take, given that she had met a goddess and had the title of [Blessed by the Goddess], but for Tess it worked. As she passed through the crowd, she did not feel the need to douse these people’s faith in her own skepticism.

Olivia had been strangely compliant as they proceeded through to the cathedral. Tess was wondering just how much Olivia’s denial might have warped her perception. Did she really believe that, especially with Tess there, that she would be able to influence Oena again? As they entered the cathedral, it was only a short while before truth would come forth.

The pair were led to a private shrine, not accessible by the general public. A beautiful tapestry hung on the rear wall, depicting a woman who was apparently meant to be Oena holding scrolls out to those small silhouettes who were meant to be the various races of the world.

“That’s how they see the System,” Tess murmured aloud.

“You’ve been running around for months and don’t know that? You really are stupid,” Olivia retorted.

“I was a little busy with training, being chased, or fighting a demon lord.”

Olivia plopped down, clearly uninterested in proceeding any further.

“Now what?” she demanded.

Tess pulled open her menu and brought up the Quest again.

[New Quest: Come to the Cathedral of Oena. Bring your captive. We have much to discuss.]

There were no progress marks on the quest, yet Tess had, as far as she was aware, completed the elements she could do.

“We pray,” Tess said.

“Oh, sure,” Olivia replied, drawing out her agreement.

Tess was not sure if she had to herself, but offering a prayer at a shrine seemed like a reasonable course of action. She knelt down at the shrine and brought her hands together.

“Oena? I have come as you requested and…”

There was a sound like rushing water that filled the private shrine room, interrupting Tess’s prayer. Despite her speed and skill, Tess could not avoid the sensation of darkness that enveloped and overtook her.

“Champion?” said a shrine attendant from outside the chamber, “What was that?”

The attendant opened the door to only find two small puddles of water in the otherwise untouched chamber.

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Elsewhere over Iriea

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Tess sprang to her feet, whipping out the Witchblade in a fluid motion as she scanned for what had managed to surprise her.

“You can relax, hero.”

Tess turned to see the familiar form of Oena. She was not sitting upon her godly throne, but rather on what appeared to be a couch. Next to her sat an unfamiliar male form who looked haggard, but was intensely focused on Tess.

“You accepted the truth?” Tess asked.

Oena sipped at a cup of some drink that was definitely not there a moment ago.

“I admit I may have been hasty,” Oena began, “But at the time I did not really understand what was going on. I had two of you appear when I was only expecting one. Then there was what the liar said.”

“I’m not a liar!” Olivia shouted, forcing everyone’s attention to her, “Great Oena! Never once have I ever even attempted to…”

Tess felt the surge as Olivia’s skill tried to activate. She activated Counter, saddened by the fact that Olivia would try such a thing.

“What?” Olivia faltered in her outburst.

Oena turned to the man.

“Can you just deactivate her skill temporarily here?”

“Maybe,” he replied.

Tess saw a semitransparent board manifest on the man’s lap, which he began to tap at while staring at something else. Oena seemed to be able to see whatever he was staring at too, as her focus had gone to the same invisible point. Olivia was still shook by Tess stopping her, so Tess took advantage to recast her binding spell. She then led the bound woman to another couch across a small table from Oena. The second couch and table had not been there before either, but Tess was going to let those sorts of questions slide.

“There,” said the man, “I had to shut down all skills here, so even her’s will be out for now.”

“Who are you?” Tess asked.

“I’m a nameless deity.”

“What is that?”

“A nameless deity is one who has not transcended into named status,” Oena said.

“I figured that what with the nameless part,” Tess replied with a sigh.

“It means I don’t have a following yet. Mostly because I do not have a world of my own. When a deity gains their own world, they can amass a following there, who give their deity a name. They then transcend into a named deity, which also boosts their power. Once named, they cannot be unnamed again.”

“Interesting,” Tess said, “So what are you doing here?”

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He glanced at Oena, who gave him a shrug.

“She’s asking you questions first. Go for it.”

He seemed to contemplate his answer for a moment.

“While I wasn’t intending for this meeting to happen, it’s not that I mind it. I suppose you could say that I’m here because of you, Theresa.”

“Because of me?”

“Well. I followed you.”

“You followed me?” Tess said, drawing back.

“Not like that! I’m the one who got you out of the Tutorial. Then I came here to meet with Oena because I saw you come here, with an unexpected attachment.”

He gestured to Olivia.

“Oh. I guess I owe you some thanks then,” Tess said, inclining her head.

“You certainly caused me a number of headaches. Those who passed through the Tutorial kept irritating so many of the other deities who got their heroes.”

“Irritating? Are they alright?”

“Well, I can’t say for certain. But they didn’t do anything wrong exactly, so we couldn’t just punish them. Well, I guess we could but I just had too much work to do to bother with it.”

“Isn’t your work falling behind then? Since you are here?” Tess asked.

“I quit. Then I came here. Only what’s happened to you recently have I had a hand in.”

“So you gave me the blessing?”

Oena broke into the conversation.

“I had him strip it from that one and give it to you. So it is from me, but I guess he did help,” Oena said.

“Oh. I guess that explains a lot,” Tess said.

They sat in silence for a moment. Tess noticed that she now had a drink available to her that was not there before.

“Okay. Why do all these things just keep appearing?” Tess asked, flustered.

Oena stopped, looking confused. The nameless deity also looked confused.

“I’ve made them appear?” Oena said.

“How do you know? Do you read minds?”

“No. We can’t do that,” Oena said, “Why would you think that we can?”

“Aren’t you omnipotent?”

Oena actually started laughing.

“If I was, do you think that I would have waited for a hero to beat the demon lord?”

The nameless deity looked uncomfortable at Oena’s words, something Tess noticed.

“The System, when implemented, limits a named deity from interacting more directly in worldly affairs,” he added, “It’s why you needed to go to the cathedral. It was a point where she could reach you.”

Tess’s eyes went wide.

“Is that why her skill worked on you?” Tess asked, jerking her thumb at Olivia.

“I… I… Wait, what?” Oena asked.

“She used Deception on you, I think. That’s part of why I think you believed her over me.”

“That’s not possible. I’m a named deity. The System doesn’t work on us,” Oena said.

Tess glanced at the nameless deity. A tiny bead of sweat had formed on the side of his head, slowly rolling down. Oena noticed Tess’s attention and looked at him too.

“So… About that…,” he started.

“WHAT?” Oena shouted, leaping to her feet.

“It was the only way to ensure that deity blessings could be implemented onto hero profiles! I didn’t make it that way. In order for blessings to be codified, it meant that the System needed to recognize the origin. The way that MSI figured out how to do that was to implement a fragment of divinity into the System itself. It was noticed that such a thing could happen, but there was no way to fix the potential backwards blowback. Combined with the extremely low likelihood that the situation could occur, they just didn’t fix it.”

Tess had lost track of the exact details, but understood enough that her theory was correct. Olivia had used a skill, perhaps unintentionally, and Oena had been subject to the effects. She coughed a little to draw the attention back to herself.

“Look I don’t blame you, Oena,” Tess said, “I suspected something was wrong about everything after you kicked me out. Olivia using her skill down there solidified my theory. Just now confirms it. It was a series of errors by all of us. I should have been a little calmer back then anyway.”

“Thank you,” Oena said, sitting down again though still clearly irritated.

There was a silence again.

“So what happens now?” Tess asked.

“Both of you are here now,” the nameless said, “There’s…”

The ripping sound interrupted him. Attention turned to the jagged, vertical line that had appeared several meters away.

“Another of your manifestations?” Tess asked.

“That’s not me,” Oena replied.

Sickly yellow light seemed to seep through the line, turning it into a bright source.

“It’s directly infiltrating your space with brute force. Oena, you need to reseal your domain now,” the nameless deity said.

“How is this happening?” Oena asked as she rushed to the rip in space.

“I don’t know, but only you can fix this right now.”

Tess watched as Oena and the nameless deity tried to deal with the rip. He was trying to physically hold it shut as Oena appeared to almost be sewing glowing thread over the rip. Yet their efforts seemed in vain as the rip began to grow wider.

“It’s not working!” Oena shouted.

The rip burst wide open into a full portal. The force of the sudden expansion knocked Oena and the nameless deity back, sending both sprawling on the floor. Tess stood up to face whatever was about to come through, drawing the Witchblade in preparation. She could see a metal machine of some sort through the portal, a large cylindrical tube pointing straight up from the center with two thin poles in a V shape at its front. Electricity of the same sickly yellow color arced within the V and occasionally jumped to touch the portal.

A bunch of heavily armed and armored stormed through the portal. Tess could tell that their armor was unlike anything she had seen before. They quickly focused on her, being the immediate looking threat, pointing their guns at her. While she had never seen guns like these before, she had a basic understanding of them from several apprentices that had passed through.

“Get down! Drop your weapon!” shouted one of the men.

“There are only eight of you,” Tess said.

The Witchblade swapped into naginata form, and Tess moved. Despite her skills still being locked out, her stats were still exceptional. The hail of bullets were only catching her after-image as she made a wide arc. The two on either end of their loose formation lost their hands in the blink of an eye, sending up a cacophony of screams to join the sound of gunfire and the sweep of her blade. However, as the first two casualties began to fall, more of the soldiers came through the portal. These new additions laid down suppressive fire, cutting off her escape routes. Tess was forced to stop or risk getting hit, and she switched to deflecting and cutting the incoming shots aimed at her.

“Stop!” a sudden voice cut through all the noise.

Except for the whining of the injured, all other noise ceased in an instant. Tess saw a man standing among the soldiers who appeared to be some sort of rogue-ish build. His hair was gray and he was not exactly young, but he did appear to know how to carry himself. His blue eyes were fierce, and it was clear that he knew how to command people.

“Cease your attacks and we won’t have to harm the others,” the rogue man said.

Oena and the nameless deity were dragged forward. Both looked dazed, as though whatever explosion that had knocked them back had somehow interrupted the divine powers they had here.

“Who are you?” Tess asked.

“You may call me Viktor. I am here to find someone very important to me. Tell me, this is Iriea, yes?”

Tess nodded.

“It is. But this space is technically her’s,” Tess added, pointing at Oena.

Viktor spared a glance at Oena.

“This weak one? That is ridiculous. Only the powerful are fit to rule over others. You are quite powerful, therefore you are in charge.”

“That’s not how it…,” Tess disputed.

“Silence. While you may be in charge, now that I am here, I am in charge.”

Tess had to admire the audacity of this Viktor. He truly believed what he said. It was eerie, as though she was seeing someone else.

“Now, you shall tell me where I might find my daughter. She is called Olivia.”

Tess’s eyes widened with surprise. She turned her head to the couches where they had previously been seated.

“Daddy?”